Tag: vancouver island

Located north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Cowichan offers an attractive temperate climate and is considered Canada’s only Maritime Mediterranean climate zone for mild year-round temperatures. The word Cowichan (Quw’utsun’) means ‘land warmed by the sun’ to the local Coast Salish First Nation and delivers excellent year-round golfing to visitors and locals alike.

Spring golf is in full swing on Vancouver Island. And we have proof! Below you’ll find photos collected this past week, March 11-18th, 2018 from golf courses along the Vancouver Island Golf Trail. Yes – they are that green!!

Never fear; Spring is near. Well, on Vancouver Island anyway. Did you know that the average temperature on the Island come February hovers around 9°C? Even better, in March it’s more like 12°C! (Most days.) Head east to Alberta and Ontario, and you’re looking at around 5. (Maybe. On a really, really good day.) As for the Prairies… Well, the less said the better.

That’s the recommendation from Golf Today Northwest in the May 2015 Issue. Author Gayle Moss explores the Vancouver Island Golf Trail and the 11 golf courses situated from Campbell River in the North to Victoria in the South.

Given the buying power of the strong US dollar, there has never been a better time to take a golf vacation to Vancouver Island, where as the author puts it “You could plan a 4-day golf trip for the price of 3”.

When planning your golf trip, finding the right courses to play or the best place to stay can sometimes be the easiest items to check off your list, especially when you can get all items in one simple quote. But what do you do when you’re not playing one of the award winning golf courses? Why you look to find Vancouver Island events that will fill your off-course time with great food, entertaining music and enjoying summer with other fun people.

Last course on the trail and I’m up in wine country again just south of Duncan at Cowichan Golf and Country Club. I’ve brought my 16 year-old and his buddy along. They’ve been practising at the driving range and at a short apr-3 course near our house, but it’s one of their first ventures out onto a full-length course.

The Mountain Course. Didn’t do too well when I was here previously attempting to conquer the Valley, and now am back setting the sights a bit higher at the Mountain. But a lot of golf has flowed through the clubs since then and so am feeling fairly confident on arrival.

After the usual faultless and friendly signing in, I head off to the driving range. It wasn’t incredibly successful, alternating fat and thin with some solid shots, but a definite lack of consistency.

Sunday morning and the last course of the weekend is Fairwinds. Up early this morning and arriving at the course with not too much time to spare, but that’s OK. Hopefully, the swing is still locked in from the previous two days and shouldn’t take long to warm up.

Saturday afternoon and it’s a day at Storey Creek. Beautiful weather, feeling fine and this is going to be a good day. Storey Creek brands itself as “a course in nature” and I pick up a booklet before the round which shows the course layout and each hole down its own alleyway of trees. Better keep the ball straight.

After a bucket of balls, and hitting the ball quite well, I proceed to the first tee feeling quite confident. We decide to play off the white tees at 5880 yards.

The first is a dog leg to the right and I pulled the ball left and left my second short, chipped over the green and then chipped in. Solid par four, ha, ha. Is this a good sign? Two pars later and feeling good I was on the par-3 4th with water short and right thinking this was going to be a good day. After hitting it into the rushes, think I could play it and hitting it six inches and finding I couldn’t and ending up having to sink a 12-footer for a double, not so good any more.

This weekend, I’m going to make good progress on the rest of the courses on the trail. It’s a weekend golf trip, something I haven’t done for what has to be close to 25 years. We’re driving up from Victoria on Friday and playing the mixed links and forest of Morningstar, then back for a barbecue with, no doubt, other unhealthy food to go with it. The old-growth natural environment of Storey Creek on Saturday and then golf by the ocean at Fairwinds on Sunday on the way back to Victoria.

Standing on the first tee at Olympic view you think: “This doesn’t look too hard”. It’s a big wide fairway well below you. You can’t quite see the green, but know it’s not too far away just around the corner. Easy hole to start off with, you think. Well, you’d be right there – it is one of the simplest holes on the course – but there are plenty of challenging ones to come.

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